viernes, febrero 02, 2007

Global Voices, July 28th, 2006

Comic Strips and Blogs: Not Everything is TextAmericas, Argentina, Weblog, HumorJorge GobbiUsually, blogs are associated with written text. But for some time now, an interesting transformation is taking place in the blogosphere, and the methods used are more varied. In Argentina, comic strip blogs are becoming more common and many times they’re made by people with trajectory in low circulation magazines. The phenomenom even has an aggregation blog, Historietas Reales (ES), which reunites a series of strip cartoonists who also have their own blogs.The idea behind Historietas Reales is simple: they are the authors’ personal stories, which anchors topics to everyday life situations. From Monday to Friday, two strips are published, while on Saturday and Sunday three strips are published. This project has the participation of Federico Reggiani and Fran Lopez on Autobiografo (ES); Fabian Zalazar on Yo conmigo; Diego Agrimbau and Dante Ginevra on El Asco; Andrés Biscaisaque and Hernán Cañellas on Martini Seco; Mr. Exes on El gabinete de Mr. Exes; Ernán on Como me hice rico y famoso; Ángel Mosquito on Granjero de Jesú; Clara Lagos on Clarísimos días; Rodrigo Terranova on La Divina Oquedad; Carolina Moadeb on Indecentemente Cursi; Max Aguirre on Los resortes simbólicos; Andrés Iommi on Mis problemas con los cómics; Z.A.P. on Quien es Z.A.P; Kwaichang Kráneo on La Cárcel de ocho huesos; Marco Guzmán on Jorgete y sus amigos. The idea to reunite them all on one single blog is great, since it lets readers follow them more easily and at one specific location. Especially for now, those users are still in a minority.La semana onirica also is collective blog that features dreams as a main topic. Everyday new stories are published, except on weekends.Another group of strip cartoonists that keep a collective blog is reunited under the name “Mama, soy famoso” (mom, I’m famous). In this case, there isn’t such an obvious theme as in Historietas Reales, so there’s a wider variety of topics, but it always emphasizes humor.Historietas Aquelarre is a blog made by three cartoonists: Caio di Lorenzo, Federico Baert and Marcos Vergara. They define their project as “an anthology of strip comics made from 1990 to now, by the three most ignored artists in history on a last attempt to be discovered by a “Maecenas”.On a similar line of Historietas Reales, with autobiographic stories, there is Liniers: Cosas que te pasan si estas vivo (things that happen when you’re alive), by an Argentinean cartoonist very popular for his work in La Nacion newspaper, where he publishes his strip comic “Macanudo”. And Esteban Podetti, a cartoonist with a long legacy in comic books in Argentina, has a blog where he mixes humor and drawings, and that is published in the Argentinean newspaper Clarin under the name of “Yo contra el mundo” (me against the world).